Drinking Vinegars!

These fruity concoctions, common for some time in Japan, have gained much in popularity lately in the States. I would have loved to have learned of these during my four pregnancies. Apple cider vinegar, while a sure cure for heartburn, simply dilluted is not as pleasant to swallow.

I've tried two flavors of this so far, a ginger and granny smith apple variety and a rhubarb variety. Let your imagination be your guide.

You'll need:

• 1 cup chopped fruit
• about 2 cups apple cider vinegar with mother, such as Bragg
• 1-1/2 cups (or so) sugar

-plus seltzer at service

Instructions: Chop up your fruit and put it in a mason jar. Mash it roughly using a fork (or a muddler if you have one). Add vinegar to cover (you want the fruit completely immersed), cover top of jar with several layers of cheesecloth (the scent will attract gnats, you have to keep those suckers out), and use a mason jar lid ring or rubber band to hold it down. Leave in a dark spot (I use my pantry) for one week. Remove, strain juices into a saucepan and discard the solids. Add sugar and bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally. Mixture will thicken slightly. Taste test using a small amount of vinegar syrup with seltzer. If needed, add more sugar and boil a little longer. Lid it and store it in the fridge. Use a few tablespoons per 2 cups of seltzer to serve.


XO, Debbie

Minted Baby Artichokes

Minted Baby Artichokes

Ingredients:

• 4 baby artichokes
• 1/2 c. fresh mint leaves
• 1/4 c. shelled walnuts
• 2 Tbsp. plain yogurt
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil plus additional to drizzle
• 2 oz. cream cheese
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 small shallot
• pinch of salt and ground pepper

Directions:

• Remove tough outer leaves of artichokes, cut tips of remaining leaves with kitchen shears, peel and trim stems and cut in half lengthwise. Place each in a bowl of water with lemon juice until ready to boil.
• Bring pot of water to a low boil (I always add my leftover lemon from squeezing to this), add in artichokes and boil about 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of your chokes. To test, try tugging on an inner leaf. When it comes out with ease, they're done.
• Meanwhile, place other ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
• Serve cut side up, drizzle with olive oil, spoon the mint dip into centers and use it to dip your leaves. Heavenly!

XO, Debbie

Filled Dates Appetizer

Having dinner guests always inspires me to try out new culinary delights. I just came up with these filled-date bites last night. They're wonderfully caramel-like in consistency and flavor. They make a great little appetizer, so I wanted to share with you all before the Easter holiday.


Cheese and Nut Filled Dates 

Ingredients:

• 8 fresh Medjool dates
• 2-3 ozs. Fromager d'Affinois (lovely double cream French cheese)
• 1/8 c. finely chopped pecans (hazelnuts would also be delicious)

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375
• Pit the dates from the stem end (I used a bird's beak knife to do this without much ado.)
• Mix the cheese and pecans together well
• Stuff the dates (you could use a pastry bag for this step, I used my fingers)
• Bake in baking dish for 10-12 minutes or until skin is very lightly crisped
• Serve hot

 Enjoy, and a Happy Holiday to all!

XO, Debbie

Lavasch Crackers

Lavasch Crackers


I never thought I'd love a cracker enough to invest the time into making it at home. That is until recently, when I bought some Lavasch crackers and topped them with a creamy goat cheese and a layer of fig spread. The salty, seedy toppings on the cracker complimented the sweetness of the fig in just the rightest of ways and made my taste buds do a little dance. Lavasch are an expensive cracker, though, and since my appetite is more extravagant than my budget large, I had to find a way to fit more of this satisfying snack into my life... I put away a whole afternoon getting these just right, but get them right I did, and I think you should try them.

Equipment: stand mixer with dough attachment, large mixing bowl, pasta machine, rolling pin, wet dishcloth or plastic wrap, dough scraper, pastry brush, cookie sheet and liner

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 c. bread flour, plus additional if needed
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 2-1/4 tsp. (or 1 pkg.) yeast
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. sugar or honey
• 1cup lukewarm water, plus additional if needed
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• a variety of seeds and seasonings: I use sesame, caraway, fennel, and poppy, as well as kosher salt, dried rosemary, and cracked pepper for toppings

Directions:

• In bowl of stand mixer, put your yeast, 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, sugar or honey and 1 cup of water. Combine and allow to sit 5-10 minutes, until foamy.
• Turn mixer on low and add bread flour slowly, a cup at a time. Add salt and 1 tsp. of the olive oil. Once incorporated, turn mixer to a medium/high setting. At this point your mixture should begin to take a dough shape. You can add additional flour or water to get it right. Let it work for 8 or so minutes. You're looking to form a ball, pliable, not too dry or sticky.
• Turn out onto floured board and knead by hand an additional few minutes. Form into a ball.
• Put 1 tsp. olive oil in large bowl and transfer the dough, covering all sides of dough with the oil. Cover with wet dishcloth or plastic wrap. Let sit about an hour, until doubled in size.
• Pre-heat oven to 500.
• Remove dough from bowl and knead another few minutes, form into a ball. Cut ball into strips, narrow enough to fit through pasta machine. Roll out one strip using rolling pin, set the others aside under dishcloth until ready to use.
• Starting with setting 1 on pasta machine, run through each setting all the way through setting 6. Repeat with remaining dough strips. You could also roll these out by hand but they have to be very thin and very consistent, I found this the best way of achieving the outcome I was looking for. 
• You're now ready to cut. Shapes are up to your discretion. I made some bite sized rounds using a biscuit cutter, some strips and triangles using my dough scraper. Just be sure the crackers you lay out on your sheet in each batch are about the same size for even cooking.
• On a lined cookie sheet, lay out your shapes. Paint each cracker with your pastry brush dipped in water and sprinkle on your toppings. I mixed my toppings together prior to this step for efficiency. Don't skimp on the salt!
• Bake em! Bake times vary depending on the size of your crackers, but it's short and seconds matter. Mine were about 3 minutes. They're done when you can see slight browning and they've developed small bubbles.

XO, Debbie

Hot Sauce make!

I've been making my own salsas since I was old enough to hold a knife, but I'd never tried making my own hot sauce and after seeing this video on Etsy and just how simple it is, I had to give it a go -err, uh, a whirl, if you will.

Watch it yourself here: Heatsy!
-Or- for a link to the Etsy recipe, go here: Heatsy! Recipe!

I was curious about the introduction of Sherry in this recipe to infuse the sauce with the flavor of aging in an oak barrel. Ultimately, though, after doing some research on other sauces, I decided on another method. While I'd love to make this and age it in an old oak barrel, since I don't happen to own one, I purchased a grilling plank (and I recommend using one of these as opposed to ordinary lumber to be assured it isn't treated.), sawed it into smallish (2x3 in. or so) bits, then canned my sauce with the heat canning method, inserting a small piece of the wood into each. I reserved one jar of sauce for the refrigerator and after only about a week, I can taste a hint of the wood. The kind of wood you choose will vary the flavors. After finding out that many of the more popular brands of apple cider vinegar are aged in cedar, I decided to try it with my hot sauce, which could prove disastrous but I was interested in experimenting. So far my refrigerator version is pleasantly affected. The kind of wood you choose is your choice, just be certain it's safe to age with and not chemically treated. Most major brands of Tobasco do strain their sauce, whether or not you do is up to you.

Try it yourself!


XO, Debbie

Homemade Granola!

This is our stand-by breakfast; homemade granola over some homemade Greek yogurt, delicious! There's really not much to making it at home, but after a recent house guest tried it and demanded the recipe, I thought I'd post it.


Homemade Granola!

Equipment: large bowl, mixing spatula, jelly roll sheet, parchment or silicone liner

Ingredients:

• 4 c. rolled oats
• 1/2 c. wheat germ
• 1/2 c. favorite dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, chopped dried apricots are our favorites)
• 1/2 c. nuts (pecans, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, etc..., chopped)
• 1/4 c. sugar (I usually use brown or raw)
• 1/4-1/3 c. oil (I've used olive, vegetable or canola with success)
• 2 Tbsp. honey (can replace with maple syrup or agave syrup, but honey makes the best granola clusters)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
• 1-1/2 tsp. sea salt
• spices of your liking (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc...)

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 275 and prepare jelly roll pan with parchment or silicone liner
• Mix all ingredients together, start with just 1/4 c. oil and add more if mixture looks dry, the oil helps it crisp up when baking.
• Lay mixture out in a flat even layer on pan
• Bake 25 minutes, pull out, stir ingredients around and spread back out in an even layer, bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until crispy.

 A great way to start the day!


XO, Debbie

Granola bars

Pack up some protein for a Spring hike (Come onnnn, Spring!!!...)!


Cranberry Crunch Granola Bars


Equipment: large spoon and bowl or stand mixer with dough attachment, jelly roll pan

Ingredients:

• 5 c. rolled oats
• 1 c. wheat germ
• 1 c. sweetened coconut
• 1 c. dried cranberries
• 1 cup roasted, salted peanuts
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 Tbsp. cashew butter
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil or canola oil
• 2 tsp. kosher salt 

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 275
• Butter and lightly flour jelly roll sheet
• Mix all ingredients well
• Pack well into jelly roll pan, squishing the mixture down. This recipe will nearly fill the pan, I like to fill in 3/4 of the way, leaving an exposed area of pan and pushing mixture in from exposed area to form a flat edge.
• Bake 20 minutes, turn pan and bake again 20 minutes. Remove pan, cut into bars using greased knife, spread bars apart (hence the exposed area of pan, leaving room to spread them) and bake once more, about 10 minutes to allow the edges of bars to crisp. 
• Cool and eat!

-Feel free to play around with ingredients here, pumpkin seeds rather than peanuts, all peanut butter, all cashew butter, almond butter instead, another dried fruit rather than cranberries... just follow the guidelines for amounts of binding ingredients, dry ingredients and sweetening ingredients and they'll come out great!


Enjoy!

XO, Debbie